Post on the forums, pay attention to the twitter, start a dev blog
anything
we feel like you don't care, sometimes
Interact with us more
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 13:38
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 13:58
#2
So then they really don't
So then they really don't care, and are just churning out games left and right willy nilly?
And all of us are just fine with that?
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 14:03
#3
Well, I think I'm fine with
Well, I think I'm fine with it.
When I'm done with the game, my gaming group and I are going to go play something else.
However, I suspect Three Rings has multiple production teams, and that there are employees working on maintaining Spiral Knights, employees working on developing a new game, employees still at work on Puzzle Pirates, and probably employees hashing out designs for games beyond those.
...Though, probably on their breaks.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 15:04
#4
You mean "I," not "we."
You may feel like they don't care, but you don't speak for us all.
I don't need a lot of developer posts (although I've seen plenty) to believe that they're reading and considering the forums. The changes they've made and upcoming additions they have announced (auction house!) make it clear that they are reading.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 15:22
#5
most likely
@Peter. My thoughts exactly.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 15:39
#6
The game's still working,
The game's still working, we're still getting bugfixes, occasional updates, and more content is very obviously shortly(in terms of usual MMO patch release timeframes) forthcoming.
The devs aren't here to babysit you. They're here to make money. These companies have several teams capable of working on multiple projects at a time, and they're also generally directed by a parent company or studio on what to do. Budgets, deadlines, etc. are all very real factors in play for Three Rings, as much as any other game development team(and any business in general).
They're doing what they're paid to do.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 17:13
#7
I would rather have the
I would rather have the developers working on the game than spending time to chat it up with us, working on a blog (wtf who cares about a blog), and twitter come on. Really dude, if you want to spend more time with them then go get a job at OOO.
lol a blog.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:12
#8
@geass
but have they? all i have seen are bugfixes and 2 sets of costumes. It is not unreasonable to ask for some sort of acknowledgement with this kind of progress. if they were churning out new stuff every week, then that would not require some form of a log; this is not the case. progress, as far as the player has seen, has been little to non existent. and the only major acknowledgement that the staff working on spiral knights is with the rebalance of gun puppies and danger rooms. its not unreasonable to think, without substantial interaction with the players, that they are twiddling their thumbs, or there is only 1 or 2 people working on this game. minecraft has developers who listen to their players, and has improved a game to be quite a respectable one. why not here too?
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:17
#9
They have a small little
They have a small little team! Didn't you watch the interview? LOL NOT... http://www.gamepro.com/video/originalseries/154223/three-rings-studio-tour/
listen to nicks part... Spiral Knights started with two people!!!
They still have a small team though... even with Sega...
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:30
#10
You guys are kind of missing
You guys are kind of missing the point. The problem isn't that they aren't talking enough, the problem is that they aren't talking at all.
And what I mean is that the most info we get is "We're working on new content". No information on what exactly it is. No information on how long it might take. No information if they actually read our suggestions. No information if they plan to balance equipment, the energy system, etc.
"We're working on it" is not enough information. I don't really care if it takes long between updates, new features, content, whatever, as long as we can know what is coming, maybe when it is coming, the suggestions they read and are considering, and etc.
And to the ones that might say, "they wouldn't abandon or ignore us. We're the ones that make the game"... You'd be surprised.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:33
#11
And what I mean is that the
And what I mean is that the most info we get is "We're working on new content". No information on what exactly it is. No information on how long it might take. No information if they actually read our suggestions. No information if they plan to balance equipment, the energy system, etc.
As I recall, this is a deliberate thing and seems to be their preferred method of working.
Not knowing what's around the corner can be neat, if a bit aggravating. Sure, a few hints dropped here and there would be neat, but more than that isn't really that necessary; as long as a playerbase has a basic idea that big things, or even small things, are on their way, they'll show up en masse for its release. Many games give very little indication, or maybe a week notice at most, before releasing major content, and minor things usually sneak out like a fart in the wind.
I'd also like to second the indication that OOO's SK team is very small(almost painfully so) for a game of this undertaking. It's not like they have the money or staff of Blizzard, Nexon, KOG, etc. behind them and the finances to hire forum PRs.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:48
#12
The game was only released a
The game was only released a month ago; they have already had a weapon expansion out, and special costume gear. I would rather have one nice update once month, than one every week that they have to put out a bugfix for the following weeks because they were in a rush to turn out some updates due to little kids crying on a forum. If this game has already gotten to the point where you are board and want more content, then go play something else until they do. It’s funny a lot of people on this forum throw out suggestions like they’ve make a game before and act like it’s so easy to create a game and maintain an economy. They have to write the code, test it, fix things, test again, and so on. Get real people this stuff takes time, so be patient.
On the note of them not telling us about things they are currently working on. This is because sometimes game developers will be working on content for a game and even if it is near finished they come to the conclusion that what they are working on will not work correctly or is not how they envisioned THEIR game. By not telling us they are lessening the risk of getting players excited about something that will never happen, and in the end look like liars. I guarantee that there are things they are working on that the people on this forum couldn't even think up. They have to be very picky as to what they chose to tell us.
One of the members of my guild (I will not say who) has been undergoing talks with OOO to be their PR person, he is mainly playing the game to get an idea of it and how it works. So they are trying to expand their team for SK, just give it time.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 18:49
#13
By not telling us they are
By not telling us they are lessening the risk of getting players excited about something that will never happen, and in the end look like liars.
This is another very good point; with a team as small as theirs, they cannot really afford to be alienating people with things they're intending to do to a game. Any time a game(absolutely any game) posts preview patch notes, people go apeshit bashing changes, crying about things they don't like(and more often than not don't understand), etc.
Dealing with that kind of garbage would be a serious pain in the ass, and IS a serious pain in the ass even for the billion dollar giants in this industry. A very modest dev team has no reason to subject themselves to it.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 19:03
#14
My main problem with them
My main problem with them keeping everything hidden to the players is simply the current unbalanced state of the game. It is less about knowing what's coming next, getting excited about it or whatever, and more about the high end players being worried about the future of the game.
Myself, having played in the preview, I can say they gave us "veteran" players the impression that they're not really willing to listen much to us, and prefer to roll with what they think that will work. (for balancing issues, at least) Their silence on this is really bothersome to me, and I worry they might end up really not listening which could lead to pretty bad results.
I don't really mind the silence on content and whatever as much, but yes, I'd really appreciate if we were given a little hint or something about it.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 19:13
#15
As a "vet"
These Dev's do listen to the players and take time to answer many questions directed to them. All you need to do is send them an E-mail with a proper question. Dont ask them for Free Ce or removing Ce, but if your question has some value to it, and you have patience they will talk to you.
Three Rings - is not the type of company from what I seen to update you every step by giving you in depth notes a heads up on what is to come etc. I personally dont mind it at all since well its all a surprise.
Some players may disagree with me, and others may agree with me. This game changed a lot from the first day it was in its preview stages it went from monsters dropping Fang of Vog to now fighting Vanna to get the Fang...to even times when status were not even introduced to adding tons of new monsters etc.
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 23:05
#16
I think a lot of people have
I think a lot of people have been spoiled by certain developers of other MMOs, who shall go unnamed, that seem to have time to chat about everything they're working on while simultaneously maintaining the game at a decent pace.
It is good to remember than not all videogames companies are ABSURDLY LARGE AND WEALTHY.
Wed, 05/11/2011 - 01:34
#17
An occasional: "We are aware
An occasional: "We are aware of that problem and are working on it" with - if possible - just a little bit of background info - would be great, though... like - let me make up some random "news" as examples:
- "the key repeat bug is still there because [we can't find the problem or really fixing it requires complete redesign of some hardcoded input stuff or whatever]"
or
- "We have not fixed minor equipment / recipe bugs yet because [we're waiting for something else to roll it out as a big update or something and there's just so much to do]"
or
- "We are actually putting more than 2 work hours a week into development, it is just much more complicated than it looks because [I really can't imagine why]"
or
- "We aren't doing anything about energy / cr / loot balancing / auction house / NPC prices, because we [need more data, neet to wait for things to stagnate first or whatever]
Just putting some random thoughts out there should be enough to help putting a lot of people at ease. I'm almost beginning to get paranoid about whether OOO might already be moving away from this game, trying to get out as much money as possible before the thing explodes by introducing stuff that was designed & rejected at an earlier stage as "content extensions". Almost could look true from a "I-dont-know-whats-going-on"-perspective - so tell us otherwise! ;).
Wed, 05/11/2011 - 05:29
#18
@Jerakal
I want you to look at this forum here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1124
Go look at all the posts made by one user called DarkEnergy.
DarkEnergy is the liason between the developers of that game, and the players. To the best of my knowledge, Dark Energy is about the same size company(if not /smaller/) than OOO.
And yet they can still find the time, spend the effort, and actually COMMUNICATE with their playerbase. Your argument about such requiring being a large and wealthy developer is flawed, if only by this single example. If this isn't enough for you(knowing this playerbase, probably isn't), then I have no doubt I can go check just about /any/ Indie-game company and find a similear amount of conversational ablility.
Wed, 05/11/2011 - 06:27
#19
Please don't be like Redbana
Please don't be like Redbana and Mythos all over again....
Wed, 05/11/2011 - 07:58
#20
stop the presses guys, we got
stop the presses guys, we got our interactions guys! http://twitter.com/#!/search/NickPopovich
that said, can we have some here please?
Sat, 05/14/2011 - 14:35
#21
Personally, I'd just love to
Personally, I'd just love to hear a bit more from the devs in terms of why they made certain things the way they did.
Example--an overwhelming majority of elemental/normal damage, but lots of armor options that protect against shadow/piercing/etc. Certain strata(ahem, JK, Duke) that give such a disproportionately large amount of heat/crowns/rewards that there's little or no point to gear for other things.
The development process intrigues me. And I'd agree with everything meowreka just posted. Us players that pay are consumers--we have a voice. If the paying players leave, SK would crash (due to lack of real world funding AND lack of in-game crystal energy...an in-game economy based entirely on real world contribution, which is an interesting experiment but I don't particularly care for it.)
A little off-topic tangent:
The sad part? I'd gladly pay 5, 10 bucks a month to play this game and not worry about CE at all (and some players, who play the market much more effectively than I do, manage that--but I dislike SK's market, it's clunky, spammy, and nobody follows etiquette or wants to haggle), but using the whole Free-to-play model ends up making massive profit off people's impulse spending. That 5* recipe you've wanted for days is FINALLY in Basil's inventory (what a cruel, sick idea...random vendors) and you don't have the crowns or CE to buy it. But, with a credit card...
They're working on a new mmo for release later this year.
http://www.threerings.net/ (Says so on the front page)
It should be understandable that they're busy, but I can't agree with their decision to work on a new game when they just released one that requires a lot of tweaking.